Compagnie de Colonisation Am‚ricaine. Action de 100 Acres de Terres

Item #77885

(VIRGINIA AND KENTUCKY). Compagnie de Colonisation Americaine. Action de 100 Acres de Terres dans les Etats de Virginie et de Kentucky. Serie B, No. [9563] Franca 1300 Mr. Louis Philibert Brun D'Aubignosc Est Proprietaire de Cent Acres de Terres Indivises...[caption title and beginning of text]. Paris, 1820. Broadside, 18 x 13_ inches. In French. Two columns of fifteen coupons each printed on either side of the prospectus, the whole enclosed by an ornamental border. Blanks in both coupons and prospectus completed with "9563." Signed in manuscript by American consul in France and by "De Redern et Cie." in Paris, "1 Juillet 1820"; blindstamped with seals of the U.S. Consulate in Paris and the Compagnie de Colonisation Americaine. Signed in manuscript on verso. Trimmed close, with some loss to border, particularly at foot of document, else near fine. A rare document. OCLC locates four copies, at the Filson Historical Society, Library of Virginia, University of Virginia, and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. A combination broadside prospectus and stock certificate for 100 acres of land, part of a 1,849,000-acre property in Virginia and Kentucky owned by the Compagnie de Colonisation Americaine, founded by Jean Sigismond Ehrenreich, Comte de Redern. The company's American agent, John Swan, was an adventurer long active in Franco-American commercial affairs. The text describes the division of land sales between individual colonists and speculators, the different classes of shares, financial organizations, commercial potential, future improvements, etc. This is one of 12,000 shares constituting Series B, numbered 9563 and dated July 1, 1820. The Comte de Redern (1761-1841) was a Prussian diplomat, intellectual, eccentric, and entrepreneur. During the time he was serving as Prussian Minister at the Court of London in the early 1790s, Redern developed a friendship with Henri Saint-Simon, with whom he shared utopian visions and a progressive humanist philosophy. The two developed a financial partnership and jointly purchased French national lands during the 1790s, an enterprise imbued with idealism but which dissolved into personal conflict that dragged on for decades. During the early 1800s, Redern invested heavily in both industry and land. In 1820, the time this certificate was issued, "his vast enterprises crashe.

Price: $2,500.00